My Life in the Bush of Ghosts Remastered
March 30th, 2006
This album is particularly important to me, because hearing it as a child introduced me to my two favorite artists as an adult. I have everything by Talking Heads and David Byrne as a solo artist (including seeing him live six times). And I’ve made it a somewhat obsessive hobby to collect everything possible released by Brian Eno (including traveling around the US to visit installations and hear him speak at a conference in New York).
My Dad introduced me to this album as a child, insisting that I sit squarely between the speakers of his audiophile stereo setup and listen to “The Jezebel Spirit” – a song featuring vocal recordings from an actual exorcism. That first impression to the pleasure of listening to music, as well as the music itself, still carries with me today.
The remastered edition of the album contains seven new tracks. Some are full unreleased songs (Pitch to Voltage, New Feet) while others are alternate versions of songs (Defiant) or unused recorded material (Vocal Outtakes, Solo Guitar With Tin Foil). Some of the new material (as well as the original release) bears a strong resemblence to both Eno’s funkier film work of the same time period, as well as the Talking Heads album “Remain in Light” (my favorite album of all time). I had read that at the time, Eno and Byrne were trying to create the music of a tribal culture that didn’t exist. (Similar to Eno and U2′s “Passengers” project where they created soundtrack music for fictional films.)
To coincide with the release, an excellent web site has been set up featuring interviews, alternate cover art, photos from the studio sessions, a video for “Mea Culpa”, audio samples, as well as a remix project that is coming soon.